Issue: Issue 8 31st July 2017

James Walton is a Gippsland poet published in newspapers, journals and anthologies. Short listed twice for the ACU National Literature Prize, a double prize winner in the MPU International Poetry Prize, and Specially Commended in The Welsh Poetry Competition – his collection ‘The Leviathan’s Apprentice’ was published in 2015. . . . Timekeeper’s Vigil …

Iter Sapientis by Jack Morris So, the wise men leave the shore into the ocean, old and far as first of wood boats row and heave blindly t’ward Madagascar a finer journey, one could say than Aldrin or Columbus knew the struggle of primeval hands now hands of me, and thus, of you …

Too Soon Anne McDonald . I trace the branch that spikes the skyline in my head Black against the orange burnished clouds Hitchcock would have painted it in ink I think therefore I must exist I thought As light left quietly and wind arrived To chase grey black clouds across the yellow moon It may …

Cancer Lyric B By Bekah Steimel . I’ve lost you to an infinite geography I cannot map out…a distance I cannot scale. There is no looking glass or telescope strong enough to glimpse you. No compass to start me in the right direction. You are lost to me. Northern stars and lighthouses are no use. …

why must details be written in invisible ink by Alfred Booth my Steinway’s stained ivories sang of elephant’s breath years later I learned of their photo gallery red extermination my grief has since been tuned to burnt umber disbelief mother called my eyes Saint Giles blue, struggling to overcome the dead salmon of her maiden name …

David Hockney – self portrait with blue guitar As a poet I have always been interested in how works of art can inspire writing – partly as yet another way of steering around writers’ block. If the words will not come, then looking at paintings that inspire you, interest you, or even alarm you, …

By Thomas Jackson Park Current methods of recording and preserving audio use digital technology. Theoretically, by using digital methods, we can create ideal and permanent records of media. A file I create today could be accessed 1000 years in the future, and if compatibility was in place, it would sound the same. This is …

By Shirley Bell. A list poem is what it says it is – it can be a list of things, people, places, ideas. Repetition of the thing being listed can be effective and rhyming can be useful for emphasis but it is optional. It is a form that lends itself to humour, with a …